https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7129-1827
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ABSTRACT
Is Covid-19 undermining European democracies? Recent scholarship overlooks the fact that most pandemic-related erosions of democracy can be attributed to illiberal inertia long in place before 2019. Did the democratic decay occur during the pandemic or due to the pandemic? We analyse the extent to which pandemic power grabs succeeded and failed in Europe with special attention to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The executive power of the purse was an opportunity to abuse state resources. Governments that engage in the “pandemic heist” with impunity can be directly linked to a power grab due to the pandemic.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 We thank Julia Grantham and Grace Hough for research assistance. We thank Hilary Appel, Marcel Lewandowsky, Jean-Benoit Pilet, Doro Bohle and two anonymous reviewers for comments. The draft of the paper was presented at various conferences including Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies, Claremont McKenna College, 2021; Reset Conference: Still the Age of Populism?, University of Florida, 2022; Technocratic attitudes, technocratic government and support for experts in Europe, CEVIPOL Connference, Brussels, 2022; ECPR GC22, Innsbruck, 2022.
2 The Pandemic Violations of Democratic Standards Index (PanDem). The PanDem index and the Pandemic Backsliding Index “provide a snapshot of how emergency responses to Covid-19 may be affecting the quality of democracy within the country.” The PanDem index has the following seven components: discriminatory measures, derogations from non-derogable rights, abusive enforcement, no time limit, limitations on legislature, official disinformation, restrictions of media freedom. Source: V-Dem. Pandemic Backsliding Index: Democracy During COVID-19 (March to June 2021). Source: https://www.v-dem.net/en/analysis/PanDem/.
3 Moreover, the index of pandemic violations highly correlates with the index of liberal democracy before the pandemic and during the pandemic.
6 Sources: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-state-run-oil-company-buys-leading-media-group/a-55859592 https://balkaninsight.com/2021/04/12/warsaw-court-blocks-takeover-of-polish-regional-media-by-state-owned-orlen/ https://rm.coe.int/poland-reply-en-orlen-s-takeover-of-polska-press-exposes-media-plurali/1680a14141 https://www.article19.org/resources/pkn-orlen-media-purchase-violates-eu-merger-rules/
9 Between 2018–2021, PM Andrej Babis led minority coalition government of ANO and social democrats with the support of the communists. Petr Fiala formed a new government of five center right parties after October 2021 general elections. The new government won the vote of confidence in January 2022.
10 Source: https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/04/28/poland-how-populists-have-exploited-coronavirus-pub-81648
14 These numbers are based on circulation. Source: https://hlidacipes.org/ondrej-neumann-babis-sva-media-uzivi-ze-statu-a-agrofertu-ostatni-hazi-pres-palubu/. Source: https://www.forum24.cz/ministerstvo-posila-evropske-penize-do-agrofertu-pres-mf-dnes-jasny-stret-zajmu-reaguji-europoslanci/
16 During women's protest the police used “the sanitary restrictions in force to stifle protests. The police checked participants' identity documents, detained them, and used direct coercion measures. Some of the interventions were characterized by brutality, which was exceptional for Polish conditions, including beatings of demonstrators by ununiformed officers from anti-terrorist units.” Source: https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/hapscpbs/issue/view/1598/462
19 Freedom House. Poland. 2021. Source: https://freedomhouse.org/country/poland/freedom-world/2021
20 Source: https://www.politykazdrowotna.com/71080,aborcja-stala-sie-praktycznie-niedopuszczalna-w-polsce
21 The European countries increased budget deficits during the pandemic. Compared with the first quarter of 2020, all European member states registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2021 (by 13.7%.). The euro area increased the ratio by 14.4%. Cyprus and Greece increased their debts by almost thirty percent, while Ireland and Norway increased debt by less than two percent. Czechia increased its debt by 11.7%, Hungary by 15.3%, Poland by 11.6% and Slovakia by 10.8%. Source: Eurostat. Government debt up to 100.5% of GDP in euro area. 84/2021– 22 July 2021. Link: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/11563191/2-22072021-AP-EN.pdf/282c649b-ae6e-3a7f-9430-7c8b6eeeee77?t=1626942865088
23 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52021SC0714 https://freedomhouse.org/country/hungary/nations-transit/2022
24 Article 10d reads: “No crime shall be committed by whoever infringes official duties or applicable laws and regulations in order to counteract COVID-19 while acting in the public interest and where such action could not have been possible or had been considerably at risk without such infringement”. Source: https://www.batory.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Tarcze_ENG.pdf Also see: https://freedomhouse.org/country/poland/nations-transit/2021.